From The Avondhu 28 May 2020
In our last review, we looked at the club’s first ever championship victory – the East Cork under 21 B football championship in 1977. This week we skip forward a few years to 1982 to pay tribute to the team that secured the club’s first ever victory on the hurling field.
The road to victory for the hurling team contained many similarities in that glory was a few years in the making and involved a number near misses before victory was ultimately achieved. Where the under 21 team suffered a final defeat in 1974 and waited three years to eventually land the title, the junior hurling team suffered final defeat in 1978 and waited four years before reaching the holy grail. In the interim a worrying and unsought consistency had developed. Following the defeat to Russell Rovers each of the following three years featured first round and quarter final victories, heightened enthusiasm, good numbers at training and heartbreaking semi-final defeat. In 1979, there was a two point defeat by Fr O’Neills. Had a decision to disallow a late goal gone the other way, we would have had the chance to atone for the final defeat within one year. Such fine margins. In 1980, the semi-final was even tighter again. Indeed there was no separating ourselves and Watergrasshill the first day. Alas, the replay saw the team produce a very flat performance and we ended up losing by seven points. The following year, we went into our semi-final against St Catherines as the side fancied to progress to the final. The enthusiasm was high. Andrew Hickey, player, coach and also secretary, noted, at the time, that attendance at training leading up to that semi-final was never higher for the club. In The game was closely fought throughout. The first half saw the lead change hand a few times but in the second half White’s Cross dominated a game that experienced referee Billy Cody did well to keep from boiling over. However, moral victories count for nothing and the speedy forwards from Conna/Ballinoe way, and possibly their greater stamina caused problems that we were unable to deal with. The result being another narrow 2 point defeat which the St. Catherines reporter for the Avondhu at the time described as ‘lucky’. But lucky or otherwise, they progressed to the final and we were left to pick ourselves up; again!
And pick ourselves up we did. The year, 1981, also marked the clubs first foray into City Division competitions. That year we committed to just the cup competitions – the Seandún Cup in football (which, in fact, we won) and the Craobh Rua Cup in hurling. As visitors, we did not have much input into fixture scheduling and so it did not help that the first round of the Craobh Rua Cup was fixed two night after that defeat to Catherines. Therefore it is testimony to the character of the team that roused themselves so quickly and defeated Fr O’Callaghans by 5 points. The next victory may have been psychologically significant in that a four goal victory followed over Nemo Rangers in the semi-final and thus ending the run of penultimate stage defeats that had plague the team. Unfortunately, the final against Ballinure did not go to plan but a final had been reached and we would look forward, with some optimism, to 1982.
And so, onto 1982 and another crack at it. Paul O’Neill (well-known referee and linesman) was on board as coach while Finbar Kiely, then Delaneys and Seandun goalkeeper and a man who has been involved with White’s Cross teams for many decades, also took some sessions as the team upped the ante training wise in another attempt to land the title. In the first round, on the 3rd of July, we had a big 7-2 to 2-4 victory over St Itas. Bride Rovers were next up in the quarter final following their own big win over Carraig Na Bfhear . This game versus the Rathcormac was a terrific contest which thankfully saw us win on a 3-11 to 2-8 score line. Russell Rovers, the side that had beaten us in the 78 deciders, were our opponents in the semi-final. After another cracking game, it seemed that the semi-final curse was about to revisit us. Trailing near the end, It took two late goals to get the side over the line and into the final. Cobh were the opposition. Played late in the year, at rain-lashed Caherlag venue, an early start proved crucial. Having got on top early, the side built up a lead that they never relinquished. They eventually ran out four point winners and for a club that was set up predominantly as a hurling club, it was fitting that it was on the silver jubilee (club was established in 1982) that we finally ended our wait for hurling silverware.
In the next few weeks we will talk to some of the players that were involved in the this first hurling victory and that football victory that we covered in the last review. For this article, I would like to thank Billy Meade, Andrew Hickey, John O’Sullivan and Stephen Crowley for their insights/memories.